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SCMP Reporter

SHANGHAI'S booming economy is allowing the city to re-assume its historic reputation as the Queen of the Orient.

   It is the most expensive place to stay in China but hotel rooms are booked solid.

  Perhaps Shanghai's most famous hotel, the venerable Peace, on The Bund, is now being renovated to restore the historic site to its former art deco glory.

  Other establishments more fascinating for their past are the Jin Jiang hotels, which are in a colourful neighbourhood that used to be the French Concession. The older Jin Jiang (Tel: 2582582) is a vast 1920s, four-star, wood-panelled maze built as an exclusive French apartment block.

   Rooms are almost half the price they are in the adjacent, high-rise Jin Jiang Tower, where rates start at US$115.

  Most of the major five-star chains are in Shanghai.

  Closest to the airport is the 419-room Hotel Nikko Longbai Shanghai (Tel: 2559111), which is owned by the JAL group and caters mostly for Japanese.

   At the northern tip of the city on Nanjing Road, in a ''city-within-a-city'' called the Shanghai Centre, is the majestic 50-storey Portman Shangri-La (Tel: 2798888), one of the city's prize hotels with room rates starting at US$160.

  Some of the best banquet and conference facilities in town are across the street from the Shanghai Centre at the JC Mandarin (Tel: 2791888) where single rooms are US$150.

  In the southwest of the city, the five-star, 1,008-room Sheraton Hua Ting (Tel: 4391000) is the largest hotel in Shanghai with slick accommodation from US$160, a shuttle service to the airport and the city centre.

  The Yangtze New World (Tel: 2750000) in the Foreign Trade Centre of the Hongqiao Economic Area, the city's newest business district, is adjacent to the International Trade and Exhibition Centres. Standard single rooms are US$100. Guests can take advantage of the hotel's membership of the Shanghai Golf Club, as well as an in-house driving range.

   Also in Hongqiao, inside the International Trade Centre, the Westin Tai Ping Yang (Tel: 2758888) has five-star service and rooms from US$125.

  The 775-room Shanghai Hilton (Tel: 2480000) is right in the middle of town. Class cuisine is the group's high point. Rooms are priced from US$160 upwards.

  Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza (Tel: 2528888), better known by its previous name, Yin Xing, is next door to the International Film Arts Centre in Pan Yu Road.

   Rates at the 534-room property, which has impressive business and leisure facilities, start at US$110.



Queen of the Orient returns